Finance – San Francisco, CA

San Francisco,^[a] officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the 17th-largest city and second-densest major city in the United States, with a 2025 population of 826,079.^[9] It is the fourth-most populous city in California and the second most-populous in the Bay Area. Some 4.6 million residents live in the city’s metropolitan statistical area. Around 9.2 million live in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area, the fifth-largest in the United States. San Francisco is a global center for technology and finance, and is well-known for its affluence, eclectic architecture, and mild climate.

Prior to European settlement, San Francisco was inhabited by the Yelamu Ohlone. On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi.^[3] The California gold rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time.^[17] In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county.^[18] After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire,^[19] it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama–Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, it was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific theater.^[20] After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, the rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism.

In 2024, San Francisco had a GDP of $268 billion and a GDP per capita of $324,000, ranking first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income among U.S. cities with a population of 300,000 or more.^[21][17] The city’s productivity is spurred by its leading universities,^[22] high-tech, healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors.^[23] The city is home to numerous companies—many in the technology sector—including Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb, Levi’s, Gap, OpenAI, Chime, Anthropic, Databricks, Dropbox, and Lyft.

In 2022, San Francisco had more than 1.7 million international visitors and approximately 20 million domestic visitors.^[24][25] It is known for its steep rolling hills, varied neighborhoods (including Chinatown and the Mission District); and landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Alcatraz.^[26] The city is home to educational and cultural institutions such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Legion of Honor, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences. Two major league sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors, play their home games within San Francisco. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is one of the world’s busiest airports, while a light rail and bus network, in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco with the wider region.^[27][28]